


I believe we are angels

by Ginny_Potter



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec is not good with languages, Fluff, Lime, M/M, Magnus is a smartass, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 23:12:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11747172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ginny_Potter/pseuds/Ginny_Potter
Summary: Where Magnus and Alec visit Berlin, Alec can't speak German, Magnus can and is a smartass about it. So Alec decides to learn. Because it can't be THAT hard.Among ten thousand other results, one attracted Alec’s attention: it was an App with a cute green owl as a symbol, it was called Duolingo and promised to teach a great deal in a short time. Whatever. Alec pressed on the download button and waited.





	I believe we are angels

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody!  
> It has been a while since the last time I wrote something. Also, this is the first time i write about Malec on AO3. I used to write a lot about them some years ago, on the Italian archive, EFP, when the TV show did not exist and the movie was just a possibility. Nevertheless, I followed the TV show since the first episode and after last week's one I felt the urge to write about Magnus and Alec again. In addiction, I was in Berlin with some friends and we joked about the moment in which Alec tells Magnus that his cat-eyes are beautiful soooo this was supposed to be much more funny and less fluff. But I am enslaved to fluff, cheesy stuff and romance, so this happened. I apologise if my German is terrible, I just started studying it. Moreover, English is not my first language, so I apologise if there are any mistakes; if so, please let me know so I can improve.  
> A big thanks to Eleonora and Marta with whom I was in Berlin and who plotted this fic with me and a big one to Ambros (she is insanely good and she writes about Malec, go find her!) who betaed this little thing.  
> I hope you will like it!  
> Kisses,  
> Ginny

Berlin looks like a contradiction.

That was the first thing that popped in Alec’s mind when he and Magnus stumbled over a portal, in a small alley behind Alexanderplatz. It was Sunday and they’d just appeared near the entrance to a shopping center which looked sadly closed. _It’s Sunday_ , thought Alec, maybe a bit stupidly – it must have been the portal shake up, or the jet lag, or something – but he couldn’t stop asking himself why a shopping center should be closed in the very day in which shopping centers were supposed to be the only thing _open_. They stepped outside, on the main square, and Magnus started pointing at the huge name written on the side of the red brick wall: _Alexa_.

“It’s like they dedicated a shopping centre to you, Alexander, maybe this could push you to reevaluate the power of shopping.”

Alec smiled and shrugged dismissively, but his attention suddenly focused on the building next to the mall: it was not a skyscraper, but it was a pretty impressive building nevertheless. A gigantic frieze ran all around it, showing colorful and powerful images of people learning and teaching and living everyday lives: there were children with telescopes and strange depictions of what looked like astronomy related things, there were women with babies chilling under trees and men resting from work. It was an imposing sequence of pictures and Alec smiled, thinking about what he read about Mexican art and how much that resembled Diego Rivera’s art. He told Magnus, without looking at him, too focused on the mural. He felt him smiling.

“You are actually quite right. The Künstler, Walter Womacka, wanted to homage Diego Rivera and, at the same time, wanted to celebrate the Neues Bauen.”

Alec turned towards him, confused.

“The artist wanted to celebrate the International Style.” Magnus translated, with a condescending expression on his face.

Alec lifted an eyebrow: “You are a smartass, you know that?”

A smug smile coloured Magnus lips: “I just aim to teach. Like the Haus des Lehrers you were so thoroughly admiring. It means…”

“If you try and translate one more word, Magnus, I swear by the Angel, this week-end will end in a continence trip for you.”

Magnus rolled his eyes: “You are so difficult to patronize.” He paused, then started to walk “I like it.”

Alec hid his smile behind a last long look towards the two so different and so strong symbols: Berlin was indeed a contradiction.

 

*

 

Faithful to Alec’s wish, Magnus didn’t translate anything anymore.

Anything _at all_.

After four hours, Alec was starting to lose it. He didn’t understand a word, it was like he’d stepped in a parallel universe. Everything was difficult, from reading street signs, to asking for a coffee at Starbucks. It was like nobody spoke a single word in English and Alec found himself with an iced macchiato twice in half an hour, glancing at a very pleased Magnus sipping his hot chocolate.

He was pretty sure some magic was involved.

Magnus, on his side, was terribly good at speaking German: words ran on his tongue like the blue flames he played with when he was bored. Speaking felt so natural to him, as much as it was alien to Alec. Elaborating speeches, letting them mould reality, was Magnus’ specialty, as much as archery was Alec’s. It was fascinating and infuriating at the same time, so when the warlock disappeared inside a fitting room in a vintage shop in Friedrichstraße, Alec picked up his phone and started typing on Google. It couldn’t be _that_ hard. He did notice that a lot of words were similar to English ones, so learning some extremely basic German couldn’t be that hard. Especially with the help of a couple of runes he learnt to turn to his favour when he was behind with schoolwork and Jace pressured him to train instead of studying. Among ten thousand other results, one attracted Alec’s attention: it was an App with a cute green owl as a symbol, it was called Duolingo and promised to teach a great deal in a short time. _Whatever_. Alec pressed on the download button and waited.

 

*

 

By the end of the afternoon, the Shadowhunter felt like a pro: he was going to impress Magnus with his – basic – German, thank you very much. He let himself fall on the huge king size bed, squinting his eyes at the notification which told him he had two new bonus skills he could purchase and each of them costed as many gold bars as he had actually obtained doing the exercises. The choice was between ‘Idioms and proverbs’ and ‘Flirting’. Alec adjusted himself against the soft pillow. The water in the shower was still running, he had some time. His thumb caressed the side of his phone, hesitant. Well, some flirting was surely going to impress Magnus more than all the ‘Hallo, wie geht’s?’[1] he had learnt all day. He purchased the new bonus skill and started the exercise.

 

*

 

Magnus’ kisses felt like fire. Alec had always thought so. He didn’t know if it was because of his power, because of the magic he could barely keep inside him, but since their first kiss Alec had thought that kissing Magnus was like being skimmed by a flame. They burnt him inside out. Magnus kept burning him with every movement of his head, of his tongue, of his fingers, intertwined in his locks. Alec didn’t want him to stop, ever. He wanted Magnus to keep kissing him and burning him until their lips hurt with the effort, even after that. Alec wanted to feel him, all of him, above him, on him, around him, inside him. Losing himself in Magnus Bane was what he craved the most. He could not stop wanting it. It wasn’t like he could control it.

Alec’s hand ran to Magnus’ shoulder blades, grabbing them like a castaway in a storm. He groaned as Magnus started to move his hips in slow, deliberate motions, blocking his breath somewhere between his lungs and his throat. He gasped for air as Magnus’ mouth moved south towards his Adam’s apple. He sucked at the skin there and Alec moaned at the feeling, at the mere thought of it. He hated drawing _iratzes_ to erase them, the day after. He kind of liked the sensation, the slight pain of them; it made it feel real, their connection, their _love_. Magnus movements slowed a bit and Alec’s heart inflated with gratitude: he wouldn’t have been able to resist much more at that rhythm and that would have been embarrassing.

“Better slow down.” He babbled, eyes glossy. He let his hands roam down towards Magnus’ lower back, where a loosened towel resisted against their best efforts.

Magnus smiled in his cat-like way, red lips and thin eyes and Alec lost himself in the gold glimmer of his irises. It was hypnotizing. The rational, sympathetic side of Alec got why Magnus didn’t like to show his warlock mark to people – it was too linked to the demonic nature of his powers, it reminded him of a dark part of himself he wasn’t willing to explore and… - but at the same time, every time he saw those vertical pupils he felt a rush of excitement running in his limbs. It was hot and sexy and unique and so so _so_ beautiful. It was like looking inside the Big Bang: all that gold and orange and yellow and amber... Magnus’ eyes looked like gems. No, Magnus’ eyes looked like _stars_. A little green owl popped in his head in the very moment his brain conceived the thought. His mouth moved before he could stop it.

“Deine Augen sind wie Sterne.”[2]

Magnus stilled.

Alec stilled.

_By. The. Sweet. Angel._

Magnus lips curved up and he almost fell off the bed trying to turn around to hide his giggles.

“Oh, come on!” Alec grabbed a pillow and hit him with all his strength “You are such a jerk! It’s an App! I was trying…”

Magnus back kept shaking as the warlock tried to suffocate his laughter. Alec hit him again: “I hate you! I was trying to learn something!”

Laughter. Blows.

“It was a bonus skill: ‘Flirting’! I thought it could be… you are such a terrible person, Magnus!” Alec’s cheeks were red with embarrassment “I didn’t mean to blurt it out like that!”

Magnus tried to apologise, but the fact that he seemed unable to stop laughing wasn’t helping.

Alec hit him again, repeatedly.

Several minutes and several blows after, Magnus managed to put himself together and he turned back towards a very annoyed Shadowhunter. His eyes were back to normal and they were shiny with tears of fun; his lips curved in a soft smile: “Alexander, you are the most adorable…” Alec threw the pillow towards his face but Magnus reacted fast and it blew up in a very feather-y explosion.

They look at each other, pillow stuffing everywhere.

Magnus’ smile, if possible, widened: “Du steckst voller Überraschungen.”[3]

Alec rolled his eyes and groaned, then he tackled Magnus, pushing him against the mattress, blocking him with his knees. He intertwined their fingers, letting their hands sink in the soft silk. Alec kissed him, strong and slow, savoring every moment, squeezing his eyelids, pressing their lips together with need.

When they separated, breathless, Magnus blinked and his eyes turned gold. Alec was still flustered: “Don’t say I am adorable.”

A peck on his mouth.

“I said you are full of surprises.”

Alec snorted and loosened his grip: “I know, I learnt that ‘Überraschungsei’ means “Kinder surprise” and I kinda connected the dots.”

Magnus smiled and lifted his neck, kissing him more gently, then he started talking, his voice softer, his expression sweet: “Wenn wir uns ansehen, / Blühn unsere Augen. / Und wie wir staunen / Vor unseren Wundern – nicht? / Und alles wird so süß. / Von Sternen sind wir eingerahmt / Und flüchten aus der Welt / Ich glaube wir sind Engel..”

Alec felt his eyes stinging, his breath stuck in his throat: “I have no idea what you just said, but it sounded beautiful.” He whispered, almost afraid that if he spoke even a tone louder he would have broken what felt like a very elaborate spell.

Magnus cupped his cheek, drawing the outline of Alec’s cheekbone with his thumb: “It’s a poem by Else Lasker-Schüler.”

“What does it mean?”

Magnus kissed him, enveloping him in an embrace and rolling over. They kissed slowly and when the warlock stopped to take a breath or to change angle, he murmured the sweet words in Alec’s mother tongue. Alec thought that nobody had ever dedicated him a poem. He thought that he would have never expected anyone to. But then Alec thought that he would have never thought that someone like Magnus could happen to him and still he was in his arms, kissing him, feeling him. _So, yeah, let it go, Lightwood. To the unexpected._

_When we look at each other_

_Our eyes blossom._

_And we are astounded_

_By the miracles we create._

_And everything is pure sweetness._

_We are framed by stars_

_And take flight from the world._

_I believe we are angels._

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] ‘Hello, how are you?’

[2] “Your eyes are like stars.”

[3] “You are full of surprises.”

**Author's Note:**

> The poem is "An den Gralprinzen" by Else Lasker-Schüler, the English translation is by Johannes Beilharz.


End file.
